Depiction Of Mama In Everyday Use Movie - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 643 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/05/23 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Everyday Use Essay Did you like this example? Nowadays, the younger generation seems to drift away from their roots and there is a story of Alice Walker named Everyday Use portraying a picture of this phenomenon. The story then was adapted to the same name movie following the plot and keeping the same characters. Although both the story and movie represent that Mama wants to keep the items from their familyrs past and give it to someone who would appreciate the familyrs heritage, I prefer to watch the movie because it is more authentic and has more sense of progression. In the story, Mama is stronger as she is a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. She can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. Moreover, when mentioning about Dee, Mama already has animosity towards her. Although she likes the different qualities Dee possesses, she is sometimes threatened because those qualities are unfamiliar to her. She seems to resent the education as well as the air of superiority of Dee over the years She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didnt necessarily need to know. Pressed us to her with the serious way she read, to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand.. She clearly understands that Maggie is destined to live a life which is similar to her while Dee lives in a world which she would never know a world making Dee depreciate her. Therefore, the story is on the track of playing out that animosity as Dee finally puts her too far. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Depiction Of Mama In Everyday Use Movie" essay for you Create order In the movie, however, Mama appears to be gentler. There is a scene showing her embracing Deers picture, which really touches viewers and offers them a glimpse of a motherrs unconditional love towards her daughter. Moreover, instead of harshly describing the limitation of Maggie as in the story, she shows more love towards her shy daughter. She looks at Maggie affectionately because she knows what has happened to her little daughter. Moreover, because of her unconditional love, she has some illusions about Dee. She is delighted when Dee promised to come home after years, and she is first confusing and disappointed as well as irritated by Deers superior attitude towards her and Maggie. Especially, the discussion between Dee and Mama when the former announces she has changed her name to Wangero becomes more comedic and sounds more ironic. At that time, the way Mama looks at Dee changes as if she does not know whether the girl in front of her is her beloved Dee or not. During the meal, she kind of protects Maggie and sees that Maggie has accepted the injustices of the world. In Maggie, she seems to see herself. She gradually realizes the separation which exists between Dee and the family when Dee acts strangely and superiorly during the meal. She learns something that she has never known about her daughter, and her realization of that knowledge drives the plot. Thanks to watching the video, readers can have a clearer picture of what the author wants to say because the quality of the movie is high, the setting is authentic, and the acting is good. Furthermore, the movie gradually and quietly describes many of Walkerrs important details about costumes and setting throu gh painfully bright dress and the sunglasses of Dee, the peaceful swept yard in front of the house, and the worn handle on the butter churn. In conclusion, although both the story and the film all have high quality and focus on the importance of maintaining oners heritage as well as challenge people to appreciate their own roots, the movie is easier to understand and has a little more sense of progression than in the story as it helps viewers picture the plot and to understand the personality of each character.

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The Simplicity of Raymond Chandler’s the Big Sleep Free Essays

Raymond Chandler would like us to believe that The Big Sleep is just another example of hard-boiled detective fiction. He would like readers to see Philip Marlowe, Vivian Regan, Carmen Sternwood, Eddie Mars, and the rest of the characters as either â€Å"good guys† or â€Å"bad guys† with no deeper meaning or symbolism to them. I found the book simple and easy to understand; the problem was that it was too easy, too simple. We will write a custom essay sample on The Simplicity of Raymond Chandler’s the Big Sleep or any similar topic only for you Order Now Then came one part that totally stood out from the rest of the book emdash; the chessboard. Marlowe toyed with it whenever he got the chance, and it probably helped him think of a next move in a particular case. I found it odd that Chandler made such a brief mention of chess, but I did not realize why until I finished the book and had time to think about what I had read. In a very interesting sense, the entire novel resembles the game of chess. Each character is a piece, and the name of the game is survival. Though the ultimate goal in chess is to take possession of the king, the underlying strategy is to eliminate as many pieces as one possibly can. This serves as insurance in the overall goal. Being that the characters/pieces determine the direction of the goal, let us look at them to begin. I have chosen to examine two characters in-depth and then put them on the board with the rest of the people in the novel. Philip Marlowe does not correspond to the knight of the chessboard. Chandler assumes that the reader will fall into the easy trap of assigning Marlowe to the role of the knight. After all, he is the main man in the novel, the one who needs to solve the case. His self-description in the opening chapter lures the reader into believing he is a typical white knight hero. â€Å"I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be† (3). This is a fitting description of a knight only because knights must possess similar qualities in order to be heroes. The main idea here is goodness, and Marlowe’s description exudes this goodness. However, as we progress throughout the novel, his â€Å"goodness† mutates into something with more of an edge on it. By the end of chapter eight, Marlowe goes â€Å"to bed full of whiskey and frustration† (42) and, the next day (chapter nine), wakes up â€Å"with a motorman’s glove in my mouth† (43). It is safe to say Marlowe’s sobriety is questionable, especially when he tells Bernie Ohls – and us – that, â€Å"I’ve got a hangover† (43). Is this the action of a knight? I do not think so. Similarly, his attitude towards everyone else in the novel detracts from his knighthood. For example, look at his treatment of Vivian Regan, who I will talk about a little later. They are talking for the first time and she tells him how cold-blooded a beast he is. â€Å"‘Or shall I call you Phil? ‘ ‘Sure. ‘ ‘You can call me Vivian. ‘ ‘Thanks, Mrs. Regan. ‘ ‘Oh, go to hell Marlowe'† (61). More of the same follows with other characters; in each instance, Marlowe does not exhibit any gentleman-like qualities that a private eye should exhibit. So, if Marlowe is not the knight on the chessboard, what is he? I believe that he is more of a rook or a bishop piece and not a knight. When we think about the knight on a chessboard, it has a good amount of flexibility but limited movement. However, a rook or a bishop can move as far as it wants to move, even if the directions are not many. Movement is important to Marlowe because he thrives on getting his task done. This requires a great deal of movement on his part. This movement includes our next subject, Vivian Regan. A funny thing happened when I was writing up the previous conversation between Marlowe and Vivian. Instead of typing â€Å"Mrs. Regan†, I typed â€Å"Mrs. Marlowe† instead. I do not attribute that to a simple lapse in thinking, but more to the fact that Vivian is similar in manner to Marlowe; they could easily be mistaken for a married couple. Vivian possesses the same sharp tongue, the same penchant for drinking, and other Marlowe-esque qualities. For example, there is the part where she is gambling in Eddie Mars’ casino and makes a bet that the house cannot cover. â€Å"‘What kind of cheap outfit is this, I’d like to know. Get busy and spin that wheel, highpockets. I want one more play and I’m playing table stakes. You take it away fast enough I’ve noticed, but when it comes to dishing it out you start to whine'† (138). That sounds like the language Philip Marlowe might use if he ran into a similar situation. Even after he foils a would-be robber in the parking lot, she still shows little signs of thanks. ‘Nice work, Marlowe. Are you my bodyguard now? ‘† (143). Vivian complements Marlowe perfectly, but is she a rook/bishop on the chessboard in the novel? Yes, but provided that Marlowe is not the same piece as she is. In other words, if Marlowe is the rook, then Vivian is the bishop, and vice-versa. I do not see Marlowe and Vivian as cohesive as Chandler might want us to believe; nonetheless, they do possess similar qualities. After talking about two of the more prominent characters, it is time to devise a chessboard strategy that makes some kind of sense. I mentioned earlier that the point in chess is to capture the king, but another goal includes getting other pieces out of the way first. If I were to assign sides, I would put people like Eddie Mars, Joe Brody, and Carmen Sternwood on a different side than Marlowe, Vivian, and General Sternwood. Why? The first group – while giving Marlowe some kind of help – is more concerned with their own safety, and individuals are not afraid to knock off anyone who messes with them. How come Carmen is included in this group? Many people would say that she is neither here nor there, but when she comes to Brody’s apartment and confronts Marlowe at the very end, she shows her true colors. In addition, there is the fact that she murdered Rusty Regan because he would not jump in the sack with her. This is where the chessboard strategy begins to unfold. Chandler’s style not only pertains to his simile/metaphor use and his abbreviated sentences, but also to his construction of character movement in the novel. In chess, what one piece does to another or where it moves to directly affects the movement of other pieces on the board. For example, moving my rook three spaces may not mean capturing a piece, but it does give the opponent something to consider in terms of future moves. He does not want to make a move now that would jeopardize him later. Similarly, what happens in Joe Brody’s apartment affects a good amount of the characters in the novel, from Carmen to Eddie to Marlowe to Vivian, and so on. In addition, that part affects what goes on in Eddie’s casino and Geiger’s house. While there may not be direct influence, there is definitely an indirect sort of influence. What does this say about Chandler as an author? It says that he likes to give his readers something to look for in his novels, and that the something will not always be apparent at first. Digging up the chessboard motif would be no easy task for most readers because of its brevity in the novel. The average reader would not read this book for analysis; he or she would read the novel for pleasure. It is only because we emdash; as English majors emdash; are trained to look beneath the surface that I was able to put this together. This also says something about the world that Chandler lived in. His was a world of thinking about the next move and being cautious about what one did, which is evident in the novel. It was hard to trust anybody because everyone had selfish motives on their minds. That factor also corresponds to the chessboard in that a person might move a piece for individual reasons while not even considering the rest of his or her pieces. That might lead to consequences later. Chandler cannot warn us about keeping track of all of the moves in the story because they are unfolding as we move with Marlowe (who obviously cannot warn us, either). It is up to the reader to keep track of everything. The Big Sleep is not a novel about chess. It is about how people and events interact and relate to one another, similar to the game of chess. As I mentioned before, the characters and their individual actions ultimately had an effect on the overall strategy and goal, which for Marlowe was to find Rusty Regan. He eventually discovered the late Mr. Regan, but it was only after a series of moves on the chessboard of life. How to cite The Simplicity of Raymond Chandler’s the Big Sleep, Essay examples